Bad idea to retake 174?

mikrokosmos

Hi! The August LSAT was my first time taking it officially, and I got a 174. It's honestly better than I expected. I was pretty confident immediately after testing, but my PT average up to the test date was around 171-172. I was doing PTs every day though so maybe I was burnt out a bit?
I had signed up for the Sept LSAT in case I needed to retake, so by this point if I don't retake, it's not refundable. I've done two PTs since the Aug test, scored 177 and 179. Have also done some drills just to keep myself in the mindset.
Originally, my target is UCLA but I'm definitely open to other T-14. Since I've already paid for the Sept test, I'm wondering if I should just take it or if it'd look bad if I retook after getting 174 on my first time. I'm above all 75th percentile GPAs if that helps.
Thanks for any advice!

amdhill08

I would love to hear about this too. I scored above the 75th percentile for my selected schools with the august lsat and am also signed up to take September. Debating about whether to take it or be thankful for the score I have! Would love to hear people’s take on this. Should we use the rest of our time focusing on admissions now?

mikrokosmos

@amdhill08 said:
I would love to hear about this too. I scored above the 75th percentile for my selected schools with the august lsat and am also signed up to take September. Debating about whether to take it or be thankful for the score I have! Would love to hear people’s take on this. Should we use the rest of our time focusing on admissions now?

Hi, thanks for replying, it's great to know I'm not the only one in this position! It's a great score and I can't guarantee that I'd do much better, but since I paid it seems like a waste to not take the opportunity, which leaves me so conflicted.

My Name Is Kris

Hi there - nice work!

I'm in a similar spot (August was first time out, scored a 173 [woot] and signed up for September). I'm pretty happy to burn the $222.

In my opinion, the risk/reward ratio is pretty heavily skewed towards the risk column for you.

If you score the same or lower then you have to cancel (plus half of your reasoning is that you already paid the money but you haven't paid the $45 yet so there is a point about lighting more money on fire) and adcoms can see that you did.

I have no idea to what degree that matters to them but I would have to imagine that walking up to the plate and scoring in the 99th and mic-dropping looks better than doing that and then having a "candidate cancel."

That said, maybe you get two more questions right, does it make a difference? Looking at the admissions data for them it suggests it doesnt, but applying early certainly seems to. If it were me (and assuming your other stats and softs are good) I would use the time and energy to work on your application and leave the LSAT.

What does your pre-law advisor think? Because again, I'm some rando on the internet that doesn't know anything so keep that in mind.

mikrokosmos

@"My Name Is Kris" said:
Hi there - nice work!

I'm in a similar spot (August was first time out, scored a 173 [woot] and signed up for September). I'm pretty happy to burn the $222.

In my opinion, the risk/reward ratio is pretty heavily skewed towards the risk column for you.

If you score the same or lower then you have to cancel (plus half of your reasoning is that you already paid the money but you haven't paid the $45 yet so there is a point about lighting more money on fire) and adcoms can see that you did.

I have no idea to what degree that matters to them but I would have to imagine that walking up to the plate and scoring in the 99th and mic-dropping looks better than doing that and then having a "candidate cancel."

That said, maybe you get two more questions right, does it make a difference? Looking at the admissions data for them it suggests it doesnt, but applying early certainly seems to. If it were me (and assuming your other stats and softs are good) I would use the time and energy to work on your application and leave the LSAT.

What does your pre-law advisor think? Because again, I'm some rando on the internet that doesn't know anything so keep that in mind.

Hi! Thank you sm for your input! After a lot of thinking and talking it through yesterday, I also decided to not retake and let go of the money I paid for Sept. I agree that I'd have to score maybe at least 3 points higher for it to make a huge difference, and having that one high score the first time taking definitely looks great on its own. Congrats on your score and good luck on your cycle!